Medical device spin-out SurgaColl Technologies gets €2m injection

SurgaColl Technologies, a spin-out from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), has secured a €2m investment fund to focus on commercialising its tissue-regeneration technology.

SurgaColl Technologies was spun out of the RCSI in 2010. It was set up to commercialise a portfolio of implantable orthopaedic products developed by the tissue engineering research group at RCSI. SurgaColl is now based at the Rubicon Centre in the Cork Institute of Technology.

The total investment in the company was in excess of €2m from a funding syndicate that included the AIB Seed Capital Fund, Harmac Medical Products, Enterprise Ireland and a number of private investors in the UK, France and Singapore. The AIB Seed Capital Fund, which is co-managed by Enterprise Equity Venture Capital, led the equity investment, with a €500,000 injection.

Dan Philpott, CEO and co-founder of SurgaColl Technologies, said the investment will enable the company to launch its first product called HydroxyColl, a bone graft substitute, in the global orthopaedics market. He said the company would also be able to complete pre-clinical trials on a cartilage-regeneration product called ChondroColl.

"The investment by Irish and international investors will enable the Surgacoll team to deliver a number of key objectives in advancing the technologies to market," said Dr Gearóid Tuohy, director of the RCSI Technology Transfer Office.

John O’Dea, Enterprise Ireland’s manager for high-potential start-ups in the industrial space, said the agency has been supporting this RCSI technology for the past six years.

"The potential prize for the company is enormous and holds out the potential for significantly improved solutions for a range of treatments in a multi-billion market," he said.